Sanchuniathon, Or Sanchoniathon

Description

Sanchuniathon, Or Sanchoniathon

Sanchuniathon, Or Sanchoniathon, the name prefixed, as that of the author, to a history of Phoenicia and Egypt published by Herennius Philo of Byblus as a Greek translation from the Phoenician. Philo, a grammarian who flourished early in the 2d century A. D., represents Sanchuniathon as a native of Berytus, and as having written in the time of Semira-mis, dedicating his work to Abibalus, a national king of Berytus. Of this work a considerable fragment is preserved in Eusebius, who quoted Sanchuniathon in corroboration of certain Biblical statements which Porphyry had assailed. It is now, after much learned controversy, the belief of most critics that the so-called history of Sanchuniathon was originally written by Philo. RichardCumberland, bishop of Peterborough, translated the fragment from Eusebius, with copious chronological and historical notes (8vo, London, 1720). The Greek fragments still extant have been published by Orelli (Leipsic, 1826), and in Cary's "Ancient Fragments" (London, 1832). In 1837 Friedrich Wagenfeld published at Bremen what purported to be the entire Greek text of Philo's Sanchuniathon, but it proved to be a fabrication of the editor.